Originally posted by DamoclesX
Got any specific hints I should know?
Just getting into this freespace 2 modding, I read some tutorials, got a few pms from nice people offereing help, just wondered if there was any of those "oh we forgot everybody knows that but you" things with freespace 2:)
Big questions I have right now are
I've set a limit for the dilgar war fighters and cap ships at 2500, no ship exceeds that for any reason.. and most will hover around 2000
is that resonable?
second, I want to use all those cool effects like shine maps and such.. lots of work?
finally... does shine mean spec.. as in you use a greyscale contrasted texture to highlight certain areas and not others, or is it a generic make this washed out in the light sort of thing?
finally, anybody who wants to help out on any level is MORE then welcome, I have no illusions about what I"m starting here, at least with starshatter before I started the mod I had a good 2 years of fiddeling with it
Thanks
msn [email protected]
Non-source code FS had a limit of something like 850 polys per subobject, about 5000 over all subbjs (including LODs and debris). SCP FS2 has...bloody huge limits (I think the highest poly working ship is something like 16,000 - Omniscapers Enterprise/Galaxy class). I have no idea what they are, but I work around the 2500 limit you suggested, sometimes over, sometimes under.
Spec maps... are simply bitmaps with -shine at the end (i.e. the spec map corresponding to fighter01 is fighter01-shine). FS retail used 8-bit pcx for all maps, SCP supports jpg (I think), TGA, and DDS. There's alpha support for TGa and DDS, but the're a bit of complexity in the subobject setup (which I'll leave till later).
Glow maps are the same as shine, except with -glow at the end.
In my understanding, if an area is fully lit the specular map is drawn (not sure if it's partly opaque or otherwise). If dark, the glow map is drawn. Spec maps can be coloured, however, i.e. if you want a colour of reflective glass. I believe specular maps are also used for enviromental mapping, but I don;t think that bit of the code is officially complete yet.
It's recommended you use as few texture maps as possible with models, due to changes caused by the HTL implementation.
Other stuff.... and you may know this, apologies if otherwise.....
Turrets are subobjects.
2 part turrets (rotating base with barrels) only work when mounted on the top / bottom - i.e. not if mounted horizontally.
4 lod models (5 may be supported, not sure), 1 debris model. The shield is converted as another model, too. Shields tend to be dodgy for capships.
All turrets / rotating objects are subobjects attached to the main hull
Subobjects (i.e. turrets) can have multiple LODs; i.e. turret01a is attached to the LOD0 hull, turret01
b to the LOD1 hull, etc
The can also have a destroyed (debris) object, which is the subobject name appended with -destroyed (i.e. turret01a-destroyed)
You can have live debris which is 'spewed' out when a subobject is destroyed. This is the subobj name appended by -debris, and with a set of rotational properties to affect how it flies off. (best look at the Charybdis or something to see these)
Can convert using truespace and - thanks to Styxx - max. The max plugin is new, so a lot of people like me have little experience with it - but it seems reliable enough IMO.
Um.... basically, it's best to ask if there's anything you can't figure out. There's a hell of a lot of stuff I could add above, but my fingers hurt. hope some of that helps
